DISCUSSING TREATIES

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24959, 21 August 1946, Page 7

DISCUSSING TREATIES

Adjournment Of Commissions

(Rec. 7 p.m.) PARIS, August 19. The commission on the Hungarian treaty at the Paris Conference adjourned till Thursday after defeating by six votes to four a proposal by Mr Novikov (Russia) for immediate discussion.

The Italian treaty commission adjourned till Thursday after a two hours’ discussion on procedure. It finally decided that each article of the draft treaty be taken up in preliminary discussion, and that in the event of disagreement the commission would not try to solve it immediately, but refer the problem to a sub-committee while the commission proceeded with the next article. The commission, after the conclusion of its preliminary examination, would then return to the disputed articles. A woman’s voice was heard for the first time at the Conference, when Dr. Gertruda Sekaninova (Czechoslovakia) intervened in the Finnish treaty commission and supported an unsuccessful Russian proposal for immediate discussion of the draft treaty. The economic commission for the Balkan countries and Finland decided to proceed treaty by treaty, beginning with the economic clauses of the Rumanian treaty. The commission agreed to seek the written views and hear the representatives of the four former enemy States. “With the completion of the appointment of chairmen to th*? 10 commissions the coming week will show whether the Paris Conference can settle down to its real work of examining the five draft treaties,” said the Paris correspondent of “The Times,”

“It is pointed out, however, that Russian objections to France’s voting in the Eastern European commissions will have to be dismissed before the commissions can take up the drafts. “Although America is nominally a member of the Finnish commission, her representative was not present. It is understood that America will not take part the discussions on the treaty following the Russian statement at the inaugural meetings objecting to those not at war with the countries concerned having votes, though not objecting to their participating in the discussions.” The Rumanian Foreign Minister (Mr George Tatarescu), in a statement, rejected the Hungarian proposal for rectification of the Transylvanian frontier. Mr Tatarescu affirmed that Rumania was against all blocs of nations. The only bloc in which she was interested was the universal United Nations organisation. The Prime Minister of South Africa (General Smuts), who will lead the South African delegation to the Paris Conference, arrived in Paris by air today. His first call was on the British Foreign Secretary (Mr Bevin), presumably to discuss problems in the Mediterranean. To-morrow, General Smuts will meet the French Prime Minister (Mr Bidault) and the Italian Prime Minister (Mr de Gasperi). Mr Bevin, although he returned to Paris as soon as he had recovered from his illness, has not yet been seen at any sessions of the conference.